Gintama Live Action Film Adaptation Announced for 2017

The previous issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has announced that a live action film adaptation of Hideaki Sorachi’s Gintama manga is in production for a 2017 release.

Some of the first details about the upcoming movie have been revealed. Japanese actor Shun Oguri (Takiya Genji from Crows Zero, Arsene Lupin III in Live Action Lupin III) will be taking the leading role as Gintoki Sakata. Yuichi Fukuda (Barairo no Buko, Hentai Kamen: The Abnormal Crisis) will be directing and planning the scripts for the 2017 film.

Gintama (Gin Tama) is an action comedy manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi. The series began in 2003 in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine where to date a total of 64 compiled volumes have been released. Since its release the manga has received high sales and praise for its writing and parodies other other popular manga and anime series. As of June last year a total of 44 million volumes have been sold. The series received many light novel and anime adaptations and spin-off. The first anime adaptation was an OVA produced by Sunrise (Love Live! School Idol Project, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch) in 2005 and was then adapted into a full series the following year, mostly directed by Yoichi Fujita (Binbougami ga!). A sequel series began in 2011 and ended last year for a total of 64 episodes. There has also been two films based on the series.

Here is a synopsis of the series from MAL:

Life isn’t easy in feudal Japan… especially since the aliens landed and conquered everything! Oh sure, the new health care is great, but the public ban on the use of swords has left a lot of defeated samurai with a difficult decision to make concerning their future career paths! This is especially true if, as in the case of Gintoki Sakata, they’re not particularly inclined towards holding a day job, which is why Gintoki’s opted for the freelance route, taking any job that’s offered to him as long as the financial remuneration sounds right. Unfortunately, in a brave new world filled with stray bug-eyed monsters, upwardly mobile Yakuza and overly ambitious E.T. entrepreneurs, those jobs usually don’t pay as well as they should for the pain, suffering and indignities endured!

A live action film adaptation of the Gintama manga is currently in production in Japan. Further information about the movie will be revealed at a later date.